Police have arrested several people and seized their trucks for smuggling luxurious goods and brand names in the Beddawi area of the northern city of Tripoli, the Internal Security Forces said on Saturday.

Eight Lebanese nationals, most of them hailing from the Jaafar clan, were apprehended and six of their large trucks were seized, police and the state-run National News Agency said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat questioned on Saturday the criticism that was indirectly addressed to him by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for his recent “sarcastic remarks on Iran's democracy,” saying that “based on the several meetings I have held with him, I recall that he has a political sense of humor.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “I was therefore suprised at the reactions that were made over marginal comments I made over the Islamic Republic and its role in obstructing Lebanon's presidential elections.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged on Saturday the March 8 camp to head to parliament on February 8 to take part in the presidential elections.

He said via Twitter: “If Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah believes that the camp achieved a victory in the presidential nominations, why doesn't his camp head to the polls in February?”

The army announced on Saturday the arrested a Lebanese national in the northern area of Zgharta on terror charges.

It said that Ahmed Ali al-Ghourani was detained in Miryata in Zgharta on suspicion of contacting terrorist groups.

The March 14 coalition noted that “confusion” has pervaded the ranks of its rival the March 8 camp in wake of the nomination of MPs Michel Aoun and Suleiman Franjieh as president, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Sources from the coalition told the daily that this confusion prompted Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to make a televised appearance on Friday night.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has voiced his commitment to ensuring that municipal elections are held later this year, reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

He told the daily that he will push for “the funding of the elections to be the first article addressed during Tuesday's cabinet session.”

Clashes had erupted between the extremist al-Nusra Front and Islamic State groups on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal over the past two days, but a military source downplayed their threat on Lebanon, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Saturday.

He told the daily that the unrest “is an armed clash over positions in the area.”

Two soldiers drowned on Saturday morning after a military boat capsized off the northern coast of Akkar, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

It said that the patrol boat had departed the northern city of Tripoli and headed North when it capsized.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reiterated Friday his party's “ethical and political commitment” to Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun's presidential nomination, expressing willingness to elect him “tomorrow.”

“We have an ethical and political commitment to support General Aoun's nomination and ever since we allied with him, he has not erred against us,” said Nasrallah in a televised speech dedicated to the presidential issue.

The Internal Security Forces announced Friday the arrest of a Palestinian young man on charges of killing a Fatah al-Intifada official at the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on Beirut's southern peripheries.

“Only hours after the crime on Thursday, and following investigations by the ISF's Intelligence Branch, the shooter was identified as M. Q., a 22-year-old Palestinian national,” the ISF said in a statement.